Storm To Pass
by Asabella
Summary: After Soul and Maka have a horrible fight, chaos breaks out in Death City. A rogue meister, who had turned on her own weapon, is going on a killing spree. Can Maka and Soul patch up their relationship and save Death City from a timely doom? SoMa.
1. The Reason

**The Reason**

Maka was making her way home alone tonight. Dirty blonde strands blew around her face as the wind picked up on the sullen night, drops of wintry rain landing on her head. She pulled her jacket closer to her petite body for more warmth.

Soul had to humor Black*Star again on one of his crazy exhibitions. She could barely recall him mumbling about some treasure that Black*Star had heard about before he was wisped away by the strange assassin.

She rubbed her head, the slight headache she had gotten within the last hour of school getting worse with every step she took on the vacant street. Blinking hard to keep the drops of rain from blurring her already hazy vision further, she tried to focus on the portion of the street she needed to cross in order to get to the apartment.

She looked both ways, her eyes focusing in and out as her headache thrummed annoyingly in her skull. Sighing she leaned out further, one foot falling into a puddle on the side of the road. _Good thing I water-proofed my boots._

Not seeing nor hearing a vehicle coming, she took the step of faith, bracing herself for the worse. Bolting across the unnaturally tame street she concentrated on the white lines that meant 'walk here' on the damp road.

Relieved when her foot hit the lip of the side walk she stepped up, not caring that it made her stumble a bit. She slowly approached the apartment door, driving her hand deep into the pocket of her outer coat, she fished out the key.

Shoving the key forward towards the hole with a clumsy hand the key clanked with the metal surrounding it. After missing the god forsaken entrance several times she grew frustrated, her eyes narrowing further as her damp hair fell in front of her face.

Growling, she blinked aggravated tears from her eyes. The headache had graduated into a migraine, and to add on to it, her head spun from lack of food. She hadn't eaten breakfast and skipped out on lunch to study for an up coming test the period after. Then she stayed after with Tsubaki to finish a project with Professor Stein, missing the usual time for dinner seeing it was now late at night.

Ignoring her shaking knees, she thrusted the rusty key forward again, and smiled weakly as she felt it sink into the well-used slot. She twisted it with such vigor that the key itself could have snapped if anymore pressure was pushed onto it.

She pushed the door open, the hinges giving a mighty groan in protest as it slowly swung open. Obviously the hinges needed another oiling. _Maybe tomorrow, it would be Saturday after all. _

She dropped her bag on the floor near the door and slipped her boots off. She couldn't bring herself to care that she pestered Soul for leaving things at the door so often. All she wanted to do was dry off and go to bed. So, she sat on the little piece of heaven known as her worn couch and wrung her hair out, drying it off in the overcoat that she had just stripped off herself, leaving her in her yellow T-shirt and red and black plaid skirt.

She didn't bother to muffle the huge sigh of relief at being home. There was nothing like your own house (Err…apartment), from the musty smell and stained carpet, it was home, and where home was comfort.

Leaning towards the coffee table slowly, she opened the top drawer, disregarding the squeak it made and pulled out a bottle of Advil. She picked up a random cup on the table top, not caring what was in it at this point.

Tipping her head back she took a large gulp of it, washing the two pills down her dry throat.

_Yum, Sour chocolate milk._ She scrunched up her nose in disgust. She'd never liked chocolate milk, not alone if it was spoiled. Hell, she didn't even think Soul would like it spoiled, and it's his favorite.

Grumbling to herself she gradually laid her head down onto the soft cushy pillow and rolled over so her face was facing the back of the couch, shielding her from the dim light coming off of the lamp on the other side of the couch.

XxXx

Feeling a slight prodding at her shoulder, Maka sighed in annoyance, nuzzling her head further into the cushion of the couch. After a little trouble, she'd finally been able to fall asleep, albeit a shallow slumber. At least her migraine was getting better, now it was only a dull ache throbbing in the back of her head like a reminder of what could return if she made any wrong movements.

"Maka." A familiar rough voice whispered close to her ear.

"Soul, What are you doing home?" She turned towards him, her eye cracking open.

"It's around 12. I woke you up so you could go to your own bed."

She didn't say anything and contemplated his idea. A bed means sleeping more comfortably and falling into a deeper rest, but, on the other hand that also involved getting up. She rolled over with a huff. "I'm fine down here. I'll see you in the morning."

She nodded in finalities as her eyes slid closed again.

Before Soul even took a step towards the stairs that lead to the bedrooms her stomach decided to make itself known with a loud, embarrassing grumble, telling everyone in the room she was hungry. She slid one eye open, hoping that he didn't hear it, unfortunately he'd turned partly around, giving her a chary look through soaked bangs that hung low on his pale face.

She closed her eye again before her gaze met his.

"Maka…Did you eat anything when you came home?" Soft steps alerted her he was heading towards the kitchen anyway.

She didn't answer him and just snuggled into the couch more, hopeful he would leave her be so she could return to sleep. Besides, after a day with Black*Star you would think he'd be too tired to worry about her state of hunger.

He took her silence as an answer. "Are you serious? You haven't eaten anything all day have you? How do you expect us to get the last few Kishin Eggs if you go all anorexic on me?" His voice was muffled by the wall that separated the kitchen and living room. "What do you want to eat? Cereal?" She heard a bowl cling as it hit the counter. Wondering why he even asks if she doesn't have a choice, she rolled onto her back.

"Sure." She grumbled wincing at the loudness of her own voice.

After a couple moments filled with ruffling plastic, clinking sliver wear, and the pitter patter of cereal hitting the floor, a soft swear echoed into the living room, making her smile, despite her headache.

Her bowl of cereal was delivered to her at last. He set it on the coffee table next to her, the bowl making a hushed _clinking_ noise when it contacted the hard wood. "I'll be right back. I have to clean up a mess." He strolled away once more with his hands in his jacket's pockets, muttering to himself grouchily.

Turning her head hesitantly she cracked an eye open, and was greeted by a blurred image of Fruit Loops. Sitting up slowly, one of her small hands raised up to cradle her bleakly throbbing head, rubbing circles at the temple to null the slight pain. _Fruit Loops, my favorite._

She couldn't help the smile that found its way to her lips. Soul knew her way too well.

She leaned forward and swung her legs off the couch. Gripping the plastic spoon in her petite hand she scooped the delicious snack into her mouth. "Mmmmhm." She sighed in delight, closing her eyes in bliss.

"You better enjoy it. I slaved over it for hours." Soul reentered the room with a hefty glass of water in hand. He took a seat beside her, the couch dipping with his extra weight.

Smiling at him, she watched his throat work as he gulped down the whole thing in one swig. "Ahh…." He put the glass down with a loud belch and sat back with a content sigh.

"So what's wrong?" He cut his dark eyes toward her as she shoveled another spoon full of bliss into her mouth, a couple missing and landing on the already filthy rug. _Tomorrow I vacuum too._ He chuckled at her antics.

"I had a pretty bad headache. But it's subsiding now." She spoke with such relief that her eyes rolled to the back of her head. He nodded in understanding. Reclining further in the sofa he struggled with a huge yawn. "That's cool." He slurred out with his mouth wide open, showing off his extremely sharp teeth.

"So what happened with Black*Star?"

"He got himself stuck in a tree." She didn't have to look at him to see the smile that was surely stretched across his face.

"How?" A soft snicker ripped up her throat at the possible reasons, it could have been anything.

"Three words—pumpkin cat women."

"Blair?" This time she actually turned to look at him in confusion.

"She was at the beach and Black*Star decided to blame her for the lost treasure," He hesitated and his smile widen, "She had music playing and didn't hear him approach. When he started yelling about how 'godly' he was she turned and blasted him with a Halloween Canon." He scoffed in amusement shaking his head at his friend's foolish ways.

"That's Black*Star for you." She quipped and stood up. She brought the bowl into the kitchen and set it in the sink. The food helped her mind clear and she smiled contentedly, even if a pile of dishes stared back at her. _Eww, soon there will be flies in here. These need to be done too. Maybe Soul would actually help out this time…. _

She was just about to turn around and ask him when two long arms reached around her and two callused hands leaned into the counter surrounding the full sink. She slowly turned to the owner of the arms, confused.

"Soul?" Her voice was small and her eyes darted towards the floor, refusing to meet his.

One of his hands came up to grip her shoulder, its warmth creeping into her flesh. "Are you ok? You've been off lately." His tone was soft and caring, a far cry from his usual gruff one. She could feel his red irises burning a hole into her forehead, making her squirm in discomfort; she's never been in such a…intimate situation before.

Closing her eyes, she willed herself to keep her body still. She could feel small trembles rack through her body, it would be over her dead body if they escalated to the point where he actually notice them. "Yeah, I'm fine. You're the one acting strange." To emphasis the point, she moved her hand to hover just over his arm, hesitating there for a couple seconds before letting it fall on his warm flesh. She let a breath go that she didn't realize she'd been holding while Soul tensed, eye's flashing with an unknown emotion.

"I'm acting strange because I know something's different about you." He paused as if to think. "I can feel it when we perform our soul resonance. You're hiding something and I want to know what." At this moment everything about him was stern. Peaking from underneath light lashes she saw that his mouth was slightly agape and his eyes solid with determination.

She directed her gaze back down to the tile flooring quickly.

She had feared this moment, and wished for it to never take place. Although she knew it would, Soul could be dense at times, but, he can read people like an open book. Especially when he knows them as well as he knew her.

That fact is what makes this situation so unbearable. If she told him what was really bothering her—plaguing her every dream and thought—, she might lose him. So, for the first time since they've known each other, she was going to lie to him. Her partner.

"Nothing. I've just been tired."

"Maka. You're a horrible liar." _I know._

"How can I be a horrible liar when I'm not lying at all?" She whispered tentatively, her head bowed low.

Her other hand reached up to him coming in contact with his chest, full intent on pushing him away so he was at least arms length away instead of being a mere breath span away. She couldn't stop it as it curled into his worn jacket, betraying her when she needed her strength of will the most.

"Look me in the eyes and say that."

Swallowing the lump that formed in her throat and fortifying her nerves she slowly met his strong eyes. Removing all emotion from her face, she spoke in a strong voice. "Nothings wrong."

His eyes flared with a whirl of emotion. She could make out anger, sadness, doubt, but, there was a couple emotions playing deeper in the bloody pools.

"Whatever you say." He pushed off of the counter and walked out of the kitchen, a disappointed air to his steps.

She stood there in disbelief, her eyes wide and brimming with tears. She refused to let them spill over, it was too early. She had to hear the reassuring _slam_ of his door until she let all the pent up emotion over flow the dam she had built up to hold it in.

The loud bang startled Maka, even though she knew it was coming. Its loudness echoed through out the whole house. One single tear slid down her cheek. Even though she wasn't standing at the door when it slammed, it felt like he'd shut it in her face.

The tears flowed faster, making an endless trail down her cheek that ended at her chin. She was sure that if she stood there all night, there would be a puddle on the floor by the time the sun greeted the sky in the morning.

She couldn't let that happen. Her name was Maka Albarn, she's suppose to be strong. Not only for herself but for everyone she cared about. So if it meant throwing away her feelings for her weapon, so be it.

She began to walk towards the stairs that lead to her and Soul's room, her steps unsteady, her whole body trembled with the effort to stop the tears that had already started to fall. To think this all began with a stupid, girlish crush. Something that wasn't suppose to mean anything—water under the bridge.

Instead, she ended up falling in love with the one person who would never have mutual feelings for her. Sure he cared about her, he saved her life several times, but that's what partner's are for, right?

_God Soul. What are you doing to me?  
_

**

* * *

T****his was suppose to be a humorous one-shot. No angst, no plot, just a fluffy one-shot with no real point. So what happened? All of a sudden, I get mobbed with plot bunnies and we have the beginning of a multi-chapter fic. Well, its not like you readers are complaining, right? ^^**

**So, let's get down to business: **

**The person who leaves the first review will be honored with a request. I will write any scenario with ALMOST any pairing in Soul Eater. But for future references I prefer Soul and Maka please and thank you. I will also do the request thingy for the 50th, 100th, 150th (and so one) reviews. :D**

**I will post the next chapter a day earlier for every person who guesses the artist of the song that that specific chapter is named after. They will also have to put a reason for the chapter's name. So if three people guess correctly, then the story will be updated three days earlier. The usual day will be Monday, because everyone needs a pick me up on Monday!**

**This is the longest AN I've ever written. I wonder how many people actually read it. Ehh, It's their loss if they didn't read it. :D mawahahah!**

**~Asa  
**


	2. Breaking The Girl

**Well, this chapter is up so early because of 13wolfsbane, who had not guessed the artist and reason for the title, but, had guessed the bonus question that I hadn't even asked yet. **

**The title of the story: Storm To Pass, is a song by Atreyu. I'd been listening to them when inspiration hit!**

**Last chapter's title: The Reason is a song by Hoobastank. It pretty much describes Maka's feelings towards Soul in a nutshell. Or at least in my fic it does!**

**I own NOTHING!  
**

* * *

**Breaking the Girl**

The next morning, Maka stood in the kitchen, a deep frown creasing her forehead. Dark circles encased her eyes, giving them a dull gleam in the morning light that filtered through the open window above the sink, the rain had stopped in the early morning hours.

Armed with rubber gloves, disinfectant, and a face-mask she prepared to take on the most intimidating job she's yet to come across. No, she wasn't about to kill a Kishin egg, nor was she confronting Soul about her feelings.

Nope, she was looking at something much worse that those two combined. She was going to do those godforsaken dishes, even if it killed her.

Out of all the chores that she planned to do today—vacuum, dust, wash bathroom—this was the one she dreaded most. The pile of dishes that spilt out of the sink and onto the counter was the build up of about three days of meals. She was fine doing the top layer, but, she was fairly confident that she would vomit when she got down to the bottom of the pile.

Taking a deep breath of un-smelly air she advanced on the enemy, swatting at a couple of annoying flies that swarmed her head as soon as she neared the sink.

It figured that Soul had chosen last night to get into a fight, now; she couldn't guilt him into doing all the dishes.

In fact he was still peacefully snoring in his bedroom.

Just like she should be doing at freakin' 7 in the morning on a Saturday, but no, she was downstairs, waging a war on germs.

Well, that's probably expected. Every time she fought with Soul she ended up thinking about the event in depth, barely getting a wink of sleep through the entire night. She would dwell on it, her dangerous thoughts festering into self loathing.

And Last night was no different.

Although, it was one of the worse occasions, she ended up sitting in her bed, refusing herself the privilege of lying down. Tears had fallen from her eyes in an on going stream until they reached her chin and dribbled down her neck onto her Pajama top. Never drying up until she'd worn herself out and collapsed onto the comforter.

It was her way of compensating for lying to Soul.

Then, to top off the horrible experience, she had woken up early—around five in the morning—to think about the lie some more, which resulted in a couple tears finding their way down her cheek once more.

They came slower this time and were cold instead of searing hot like the ones before. Her face had felt frozen and bare, like she had lost the ability to change her expression.

That's when she knew her mental defensive mechanism had kicked in.

It had developed when she first caught her father fooling around with someone other than her mother at a dance. She was young at the time, and wasn't sure how to handle it. She couldn't tell her mother because she thought her father wouldn't be stupid enough to let her find out. She now knew that she'd been a fool not to think her father wouldn't cheat again.

In retaliation for her misjudgment she blocked out all of the horrible images of her father's unfaithful meetings. She blocked out the fact that he didn't care enough to hide them better. She vowed to never let herself cry another tear for her father's stupidity ever again.

So far, she has held true to that vow, but, it had made her bitter towards her father and standoffish towards anyone of the opposite sex.

Except Soul, who broke down all her barriers only to stab her where it hurts the most. The worse part about it was that he didn't have the slightest clue about what he was doing to her. He was completely oblivious to her longing stares and wistful sighs.

Now, she must do what she did with her father. She must stop her feelings for her partner; she couldn't allow them to spread further into her heart. She had to forget about the fuzzy feeling he gave her: She had to fall out of love.

Even if it'd be the last thing she did.

Her eyes blurred again, its one thing to stop respecting someone you held up so high. It was easy to just watch her father fall out of grace, but, to stop something that was so pure a feeling, something that she truly did not want to forget was an entirely different matter.

She owed it to Soul, she had to cancel out her lie and make it truth and this is where it would start. She swallowed hard and squared her shoulders, closing her eyes; she exhaled loudly, clearing all thoughts of love and lies out of her clouded mind before resettling her gaze on the mound of dishes at hand.

_Oh __Shinigami there were a lot._

XxXx

After Maka finished the damned dishes she found herself fiddling with the squeaky hinge of the front door. She crouched down on the top step, letting the creepy sun's rays warm her chilled skin. Inspecting the rusted metal, she tipped the can of oil over just enough for a little to dribble out of the spout and land on the waiting cloth in her free hand. She dabbed the hinge with it carefully, avoiding the wooden door attached to it.

"MAKA!" The obnoxious voice of Black*Star shattered the tranquil silence on the waking street, "GUESS WHAT I, THE GREAT BLACK*STAR IS ON HIS WAY TO DO?" He boomed, his presence _almost_ overpowering Tsubaki's, who was a couple steps behind the loud assassin.

Maka stood up, setting the cloth and oil can on the stairs before facing her friends. "I have no idea. It could be anything." She put her pointer finger to her lips in thought, looking to the sky for an idea of the assassin pair's agenda.

"A MISSSSSION!" He shouted, fist-pumping into the air, "YAHOOO!" He spun around to Tsubaki, who was moving around the obnoxious assassin with a small smile.

"Do you remember what Stein was saying after class yesterday?" Tsubaki walked around Black*Star with such elegance and grace that only a ninja could muster up.

Blinking, Maka sat down on the last step of the stairs and nodded. "Yeah, He was telling us about the killings that have been taking place recently."

"Yeah, Lord Death received some leads from an anonymous source about the whereabouts of the killer's hideout." Tsubaki explained. "You know where the abandoned factory is a couple streets down from here right?"

Maka nodded.

"Well, apparently he's in the basement there, waiting until night time so he can kill more innocent people." She spoke with such an amount of bitterness that it unnerved Maka. It was so out of place on Tsubaki, who was normally a shy and sweet person.

"COME ON TSUBAKI!" Black*Star interrupted the chatting girls and grabbed the taller one by the arm and pulled her down the street. "DAYLIGHT'S A WASTING!" He wailed in distress, laughing wickedly along the way.

Smiling, Maka shook her head at her friends' antics. How Tsubaki dealt with Black*Star was beyond her. Although, she did give the girl props, Black*Star did seem to be awfully devoted to her.

Stepping inside the doorway, oil can and rag in hand, Maka closed the door, satisfied to find that it no longer squeaked.

After putting her handful away, she plopped down on the couch and sighed. It was only 9:30 in the morning and she was already tired.

Footsteps echoed from upstairs, alerting Maka that her partner was awake. A bob of messy white hair appeared from the top of the stairs, followed by a grumpy face and tense form. Soul, in all his morning glory, stomped down the stairs in a slow rage. His dark red eyes glared at her seated form. "What the hell was all that yelling about?" He spoke in his scary calm voice.

Soul had three types of angry tones. One was the one she'd witnessed last night. The Clearly angry, but still under control one. She got that one a lot, especially if she did something that worried him. She found this one—for some reason or another—enduring and cute. She liked his annoyed pout and tense voice as he lectured her about staying out to late with the girls or something.

The second one was a lot scarier, she'd only seen it once when he and Black*Star got into an argument over _Shinigami_ knows what. The screaming, glaring, swearing one was absolutely terrifying, and it ended up with him turning his arm into a scythe and threatening to behead the poor idiot who angered him to that point.

Then, there was the type of anger she was starring right in the face at this very moment. The type that was barely concealed and controlled. It seemed to rankle under his skin and in his gaze and radiate off his body in waves, but his voice was calm. Kind of like the calm before the storm.

So yes, Maka was in deep shit.

"Black*Star." She spoke sharply, "He finally got a mission worth bragging about."

Soul merely grunted in understanding before stomping to the kitchen, the pictures of their group on the wall rattled with the force of his steps. She winced with every pounding noise his feet made.

She knew she had to talk to him, try to make him understand that this was nothing he could help her with. But in all sincerity she was scared. This next conversation would change everything between them, in a good, or bad, way. Sadly she was leaning towards bad.

So, she stood up and slowly approached the kitchen, her steps immensely quieter than his as she made her way through the living room and peaked around the corner. Soul had his back to her and was bent over, rummaging through the refrigerator. He reached back and scratched the base of his neck before clobbering the door with such force that when it made contact with the sealing part of the fridge it shook the whole thing.

Stepping out of the shadow of the archway, she attentively spoke, wringing her hands in front of her. "Soul…" She peeked over at him. He'd turned to glare at her, his mouth knotted up in a scowl. She quickly looked away, "We need to talk."

He scoffed and leaned against the refrigerator, crossing his arms over his chest. "_Really?_ I would have never figured that out on my own. That you for you're enlightenment, _partner_."

Maka cringed. She defiantly deserved that. "Why are you taking this so far?" She glued her eyes to the sink, which was no longer filled to the brim with dishes. She would have smiled if the situation was different.

"Why? You of all people should know _why_." His tone was back to his scary calm one.

Maka stepped towards the small dining table, stumbling over her feet slightly, and sat in the closest chair, shooting him a stern look. "Well I don't, so elaborate."

He stayed quiet and stared at her with so much annoyance and anger that she wanted to crawl into the nearest hole and stay there. Her next string of words enforced that feeling. "Look Soul, I can't help clear this up if you don't tell me what has you so peeved. You're acting like a child—"

"I'm ACTING like a _child_!" His red eyes flared up while he trudged closer to her, "You're the one who's lying to you're _partner's_ face. You're the one hiding your feelings and being a hypocrite!" His hot breath assaulted her face. He was so close that she could make out every fleck of color in his eye. Gold, brown, and obviously, red.

"If you really want to know why I'm _so_ upset then fine: _You disgust me_." He spat.

Maka inhaled harshly, her eyes widening. "Disgust you? Only a child would use such strong words without having an actual reason for them!" She knew that she should just shut up, that that he really did have a reason for his strong words. But she couldn't make her mouth stop moving, all her built up resentment towards Soul for _making_ her fall for him just spewed out of her mouth in one go.

"Besides, I'm not lying to you about anything," Lie number two, "Sure I hide my fair share of emotions, but you shouldn't be talking Soul Eater Evans, you're just as much as a hypocrite as I am in this case."

Soul straightened and balled his fists tightly as is side. He spoke with such disappointment and hurt that it would have made her squirm in her seat if she was any less of a person. "You've always said that we could deal with anything together. That if something was really bothering one of us we could vent to the other. You said—not so long ago in fact—that we didn't have to go through tough things alone, and it's obvious that you are having some sort of inner crisis, I can feel it when ever we perform Soul Resonance." He paused and studied her, his eyes scanning her features.

"I can tell just by looking at you that you didn't get much sleep last night. Bloodshot eyes, dark circles, hunched shoulders, clumsy movements." He named off all her flaws in one swift breath and backed towards the archway, never losing eye contact. "But, I don't really need any of those signs because I heard you last night." He paused to lean against part of the arch.

Maka stilled. She was about to follow him out of the room, but his course words stopped her in her tracks. She tried to play it off as nonchalantly as possible, but she knew he could see right through her act. "What are you talking about?" She looked down and waved her hand at him dismissively.

"There," He pointed at her, "You looked down, that's what you do when you feel awkward about something." He seemed smug.

It was Maka's turn to see red, her gaze snapped up to meet his once more. "How is that possible? I don't even have anything to be awkward about!"

"I heard you crying." That certainly froze her up. She felt her anger dwindle away into shock, her face going blank. "So don't even feed me that shit.—_that lie_."

Maka was speechless, her eyes searching Soul. Tons of questions swarmed through her head, but unlike before, her mouth refused to open to utter them.

Soul shook his head in frustration. "And that is how you're a hypocrite, you preached about being honest with the other, about sharing your feelings with your _partner_. Yet, you're the one who lied to my face _twice_, and kept you're feelings to yourself. If that's not a hypocrite, then I don't know what is."

With those last words he spun around and marched into the living room, hands still fisted. "You're being _very _uncool Maka." He snarled before shutting the front door loudly, the thud of it slamming shut echoing throughout the whole house.

_Damn he's pissed off. He didn't even change out of his Pajama's before he left. _Maka thought to herself dejectedly, sighing loudly. _What have I gotten myself into?_


	3. Lost Highways

**A.N. The last song was Breaking The Girl by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I chose this title because Soul's attitude towards Maka really upset her, and I would even go as far as broke her heat, thus, breaking the girl. **

**Lost Highways**

The monotonous ticking of the clock on the far wall of the apartment did little to distract Maka from her musing. It's been about four hours since Soul stormed out of the house in a huff. She was getting worried, it started raining about a half an hour ago, and Soul really disliked getting caught up in the rain. She figured he would be home by now.

Standing up, she moved over to the window, peering outside into the flooded streets and cloudy sky of Death City. She tried to see further down the street, hoping that Soul would be running down the street looking for shelter from the merciless rain.

She figured he had to be at least cold, he left wearing only an old, thin summer T-shirt and a pair of baggy sweat pants. Those things would soak through in no time.

A loud clap of thunder made her gasp as her eyes shot up to the sky. Her mouth dropped open in shock when she took in the swirling clouds that spun in a tight circle right over Death City. If she didn't know better she would have thought a tornado could have touched down. But Lord Death's magic didn't let natural disasters touch his city.

A flash of purple illuminated the center of the eye of the storm, beaming down towards the ground just like lightning, when it hit the ground it seemed as if it shook the entire city, but, it made no noise.

_What the hell?_

Stepping towards the door, she opened it hesitantly, the rain pouring down on her head when she stuck it out and looked down the street. A girl passed Maka's street, long bright red hair trailing behind her. A boy was following her.

_Probably startled by the natural phenomenon…._

She closed the door when the two passing by were out of her line of vision. That was it, she was going to go search for Soul now. Even if he was furious with her, he should have come home by now. It wasn't like him to make her worry like this and he was too _cool_ to even consider revenge.

She jogged up the few stairs that lead to the top floor and rushed to her room. Fumbling through her drawer she pulled out her usual skirt and started to pull down the shorts she'd worn to bed last night. She didn't even remember changing into her pajama's last night.

Another loud crack of thunder spooked Maka, making her almost trip on her half way pulled down shorts. She struggled to look out the window. Outside, it had only gotten darker, and was close to the color of dusk, and it was only around two in the afternoon.

"Maka!" Suddenly, her door swung open, revealing a heavily breathing Soul, leaning on his knees in her door way.

Squeaking in shock she quickly pulled her shorts back up, her face heating up at being caught with her pants down. "Soul! Where have you been?" She chided, as soon as the color gathered to her face, it drained.

Soul's clothes were ripped, his black blood oozing out of the cut marks underneath them. He cradled his shoulder with one hand where blood seeped out from in-between his bruised fingers. His face already had slightly discolored skin where it looked like he had gotten punched in the face. His hair was matted down from the rain, hanging in his face so she couldn't see his eyes.

"We have to go…" He drifted off, taking a break to breath, "Tsubaki and Black*Star…are in trouble." He choked out.

Maka didn't need any further amount of motivation. Hell with looking decent, she ran after Soul—who had made his way down stairs—and followed him out the door, the sky pouring buckets of water onto their heads.

"So let me get this straight, Maka kept up with Soul with little effort, he already seemed worn out. They were about half way down their street, and her bare feet already stung from slapping into the deep puddles. "There's a rogue meister and weapon killing humans for their souls?"

Soul nodded, not having the extra breath to talk.

"And this is for a greater being?" She couldn't help the little giggle that bubbled from her mouth at the ridiculous idea.

Soul shot her a bewildered look from the corner of his eye then continued with rolling them. "She's absolutely…crazy."

Maka smiled. "Me or the other meister?"

"Both." He narrowed his dark eyes at her, which sent shivers down her spin. _He's defiantly still pissed._

A blinding light flashed from the sky, causing the duo to stop in their tracks. They both looked to the sky, mouth's agape, just to see another purple bolt zigzag to the ground. "That's what I saw earlier." Maka filled in, crossing her arms over her chest for warmth. Her thin tank top was completely soaked through and rubbed up against her torso uncomfortably.

Soul wiped his wet mop out of his face and looked at her, apprehension tensing his whole body as he shifted in his wet clothing uncomfortably. "That's the meister's attack. She used it…to strike down Black*Star. That's when I came…to get you…Tsubaki's stalling for us."

"Then let's move." Soul didn't need to be told twice. They had paused to look at the sky right at the stop sign and were about to move onto the main road. He gestured for her to stay there as he peeked around the corner.

His jaw dropped considerably and he turned back towards her. His mouth formed words, but none came forth, it just seemed to be stuck in an 'oh' position. Whatever's on the other side of the building that blocked Maka's view must be pretty appalling to render her smart-mouthed partner speechless.

Walking around to his side, she tentatively looked over his shoulder, her hands coming to rest on his arm. The air rushed out of her lungs at what she saw, one hand flew to her mouth to muffle the loud gasp that was building in her throat. She didn't want to let the person responsible for this mess to locate where she and Soul were. In fact she wanted to grab Soul by the hand and drag him back to their apartment and lock all the doors and windows so no one could get in.

All because what she saw before her was so much like a horrible nightmare that she was tempted to pinch herself to make sure she was indeed awake. A scorched car was flipped over and on fire in the middle of the street, by the blackened road around it; it looked like it had been struck by lightning.

Soul took a hesitant step forward, and grabbed at her wrist, holding it in a death-vice grip. "Stay behind me, that psycho could still be around." He hissed in a low voice.

Maka didn't argue, her stomach lurched as she took in the scene further. Her eyes darted from one disaster to another. A beaten up women crawled away from another nearby car, whimpers emitting from her frail form.

A couple feet away from the women a large fire engulfed a convenience store. A crowd of people stood on the opposite sidewalk, watching it in a silent awe.

It was surreal to think that all this was happening at such a short distance away from her and Soul's own home. Hell, it was downright shocking that it was happening in Death City, where the Shinigami resided and protected himself. How could someone so destructive get past his watchful eye?

As they passed the crowd, Maka caught onto the pieces of a hushed conversation between two men that stood in very back of the crowd.

"I heard there's a deranged meister running around setting things on fire. Rumor has it that she was last seen trying to kill her own weapon." A man with a red over coat spoke.

The other man with a plain white T-shirt nodded in agreement. "I also heard that this meister can create lightning. That's what happened to this store."

"Really I hope….."

Maka strained to hear more of their conversation, but, they had moved passed the crowd and now were jogging down towards the end of this street. Souls grip on her arm never lightened, and if anything tightened when they came across a trail of blood.

The little blood puddles were about the size of a penny at the beginning, but as they hurried down the street they became larger, until they were as big as an average sized rain water puddle.

They came to a slow halt, Maka was unable to see over Soul, but, by how he tensed she knew something was amiss. The grip on her wrist soon turned painful, his knuckles turning white. She noticed that the side of his cheek that she could see was a stony color of white.

She tried to maneuver her hand out of the hard hold, but found the struggle useless. She paused when she felt a warm substance seep onto the tip of her toes. Slowly, she looked down to see a lone trail of blood easing its way down the side walk. Hastily, she moved her foot, wiping the warm blood from her toe on the cement.

When she looked up from her foot she was able to see what had stricken Soul's body to something as stiff as a board. A badly injured boy lay face down on the concrete in front of them. He was surrounded by a puddle of his own blood, cuts that lacerated his entire body feeding the mini pond until little rivers found cracks in the cement to follow downhill.

Soul moved closer to the boy while Maka came to kneel at his side. She noticed with a short lived relief that his chest heaved with small, labored breaths, making his back move subtly. "He's breathing." She whispered to no one in particular.

Soul leaned down and turned the boy over. She heard Soul grunt and before she could raise her eyes to the boys face Soul had cupped his hand over her eyes and pulled her to her feet. He pushed her forward, not allowing her a single peek at the boy.

After they were a considerable distance from the boy Soul let his hand drop to her arm.

"What was it?" Maka asked, scanning Soul's face for any type of emotion, only to be disappointed. His face was completely blank.

"He'd been completely burned. You couldn't even tell where his features started or ended." He spoke in a muted whisper. "You didn't need to see that."

Maka furrowed her brow. "Did we know him?"

Soul tensed at the question. "You didn't, but I did." He avoided her questioning gaze, "The rogue meister's weapon." He didn't meet her eyes, but she knew he wanted to go back to help him. They both knew he was going to die if he didn't get to a hospital soon.

But there were other people who needed their help, who were waiting for them.

What if their friends ended up like that boy.

A loud scream, desperate sounding scream distracted Maka from her earnest thoughts. A loud explosion followed the scream, lighting the nearby street a light orange color. Smoke bellowed down the main road in its wake, clouding both their visions and making them cough. The smell of burnt hair drifted through the damp air, mingling with the scent of fresh rain.

Soul came to a stop in front of her, allowing her to stand next to him as they looked upon the absolutely destroyed street. "I think we found her." Soul spoke with dread as he stepped over someone's lost shoe.

A body sat up a couple meters away from them. Spiky hair flopped about as the boy shook his head and flexed his arm as if it was injured. He stood up, his leg giving out before he ran back into the smoke, a slight limp on his right foot. "THAT WAS A LUCKY SHOT!"

Maka has never been so happy to hear Black*Star's annoying outbursts until that very moment.

Lunging forward, Maka sprinted towards the smoke, where Black*Star disappeared moments before. Her bare feet throbbed from stepping on uprooted asphalt from the road. She winced a couple times when she felt a sharper piece thrust into her tender flesh.

"Maka!" Soul hissed, grabbing her by the shoulder and jerking backwards, "Are you out of your mind?"

With an incredulous look on her face she raised both her eyebrows. "Don't you want to help them?" She nodded her head towards the smoke, where battle cries and grunts could be heard.

Gritting his teeth and letting out a wary sigh he turned her around to face him. "That's the stupidest thing I've heard from your mouth yet. And recently, you've said a lot of stupid things." His eyes glared with anger, which was intimidating with his red eyes.

Maka looked over her shoulder uneasily. "Are we seriously going to argue about this? With every second we stand here doing nothing, another chance our friends might get hurt."

"So you're going to help them by running into a middle of a fight you know virtually nothing about? That's rash, even for you, Maka."

Shifting so she was leaning on one foot she crossed her arms and knitted her blazing green eyes in frustration. "Ok, then what do you have in mind? Sitting on the sidelines until the dust clears. If so, that's not going to work—"

Another explosion—one much more powerful than the one before—blasted the team backwards. Maka skidded into a nearby trash can, toppling it over and ramming it into a building wall with her body. Soon, Soul followed suit and slammed into her, crushing her small body with his weight.

A loud cough alerted them that they were not in fact alone. A boy—most likely Black*Star—was shrouded in smoke not four feet away from where they lay. Maka sat up, rudely pushing Soul off of her lap and approached the figure. "Black*Star?" She whispered into the whirling silence.

The figure snapped to attention. "Maka!" He rumbled, another set of coughs quivering through his system. "You hear to join that party?" He spoke weakly, which was a feat for Black*Star, who was always so gun-ho about fights.

"I guess we are." She reached for Soul, but fisted her hand around air instead. She fumbled for a bit, trying to make contact with anything other than the destroyed street in hopes of coming in contact with the warm flesh of her partner. "Soul." She whispered harshly into the cloudy air, hoping to locate him.

Then, a large hand came around and clasped around her mouth, muffling her terrified scream as she was dragged back into a warm body. She tried to bite the offending hand, but found that it did little to her advantage, and put a bad taste in her mouth.

Her body was pushed up against a building that was falling apart, some dust from the bricks that had been broken by the explosion poured on her and her captor's head.

She hadn't even started fighting the rogue meister and she was captured by someone. Is the universe against her or something? This sure has been one hell of a couple days.


	4. The Poison

**So last chapter's namesake was a little more difficult to come up with because it was only part of the title of the song: Dead End Roads and Lost Highways by Burn Halo.**

**The Poison**

"Who are you?" Maka gushed out in-between ragged breaths. After a bit of struggling and kicking she was able to move her mouth from underneath the retched hand. She was still pushed up against the wall by her captor's rigid body, but now she was free to speak.

Of course, no one answered her, and the hand came up to replace itself over her mouth. The man's body pressed into her further, as if he was avoiding something that was too close for comfort behind him. She felt him lean forward, his warm breath brushing the side of her cheek and washing over her ear lightly. "Relax."

The overly familiar voice was hushed and raspy. No doubt that her captor was no other than her own partner, Soul. She relaxed into the wall, feeling less like a damsel in distress and more in distress. What was he trying to do to her? Give her a freakin' heart attack. It sure seemed like it.

"Stay quiet, the meister is wandering closer to us."

An eerie chuckle broke through the tense whispers like a knife. Maka peeked over Soul's shoulder, her head now able to move since he moved his hand down to her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed at the staggering figure that was slowly moving through the smoke towards them. "Hehehe, ready or not here I come!" The girl snorted in laughter as she took a sudden leap to their right. "Found YOU!" She yelled in a maddeningly thrilled voice.

"YOU DON"T FIND BLACK*STAR! BLACK*STAR FINDS YOU!" A clatter of chains and a battle cry later, Black*Star and Tsubaki were locked in battle with the meister once again. She danced around the duo; all the while laughing as if their deadly swipes and stabs were not life threatening and were only a part of a hilarious game.

The girl jumped into the air with such speed that it rivaled Tsubaki's own and flipped over the assassin twosome effortlessly. Her long hair trailed behind her like a shadow, following every movement she made. When she landed she immediately turned to face Black*Star, who still had his back to her.

Extending her arm in front of her she laughed. "It's MY turn!" She sounded like a child eager to make her move on a game board.

A flash of purple sliced through the receding smoke, making Soul cup a hand above his eyes to shield them from the blinding lit. Maka turned her head in the opposite direction, her shoulders tensing when Black*Star's agonizing scream was heard.

Maka turned to look for Black*Star, only to see the long haired girl standing alone, her hands on her hips and back straight in a confident manor. "I'm done with you two. You're boring me." She sighed in disappointment.

Maka could barely make out Black*Star and Tsubaki through the thick smoke that had re-gathered in the area do to the meister's bizarre attack. Tsubaki was now in her human form, Black*Star's head cushioned in her lap. The last blow had apparently knocked the assassin out.

The long haired meister spread one arm out, as if she was going to take flight. It started to glow a soft blue color, causing the insane meister to chuckle to herself. Soon, the glowing became so bright; Maka could just make out features on the long haired meister's face, such as a sadistic smile.

"It's a pity really; you are such a strong weapon." She mused to herself, the blue light making shadows play on her face as she tilted her head back to let out a strong, long laugh. "But everyone has to die someday, and that day for you is today!"

Tsubaki shrunk back into the building her and Black*Star had been slammed into by the force of the long haired girl's attack. She brought Black*Star to her chest and held him there tightly. Maka couldn't see if his eyes were open or not.

The meister slowly lifted the glowing arm above her head, and soon, her other arm joined it there and began to turn the same shade of blue as the other. "Brace yourself, this may HURT ALITTLE!" She roared with laughter.

Maka slipped her free hand into the Soul's, her feet shifting in a position ready to spring in action. He squeezed her hand tightly, as if to reassure her.

The meister's finger tips turned a deep blue before turning a vibrant purple. The purple spread up her arms and she took a step towards Tsubaki.

Maka didn't hesitate any longer and took a quick step forward, Soul, as if he read her mind, transformed into his scythe form. Maka spun him above her head as she sprinted towards the meister who was threatening to end her best friends' lives. Grunting when she felt Soul start to slip from her grip she spun him off to the side and stilled him so he was poised in an offensive position, ready and balanced to take off the destructive girls head.

Soul seemed a lot heavier than usual.

Maka leapt forward, a loud grown of effort accompanying her entrance into the battle. With all the strength she could muster up in mid air she swung Soul at the long haired meister.

Eyes wide with surprise…and maybe a little glee, the meister jumped back, avoiding the difficult attack with ease. Her hands where now interlocked in front of her and pointed at Maka, still glowing the haunting purple color as before, "A WILD CARD PLAYER!" She said in lewd happiness. "IT'S SO NICE OF YOU TO JOIN US, AND JUST WHEN I WAS GETTING BORED!"

Maka pivoted on her feet and put all her body weight into swinging Soul towards the other meister's neck once more. Scowling further, she couldn't help the snarl that ripped from her throat when the meister jumped away and landed a couple feet to her right without a single scratch from Soul's blade.

"WATCH OUT!" Tsubaki's voice shocked Maka into almost letting Soul out of her grip, she scrambled a little to get a better hold of her partner, who flashed in the blade of the scythe, giving her a skeptical, if not worried look.

Looking at Tsubaki—who sat a little less than four feet away from her—she looked to the sky, now seeing what had her best friend so worried. The clouds were swirling around each other just like before.

The long haired meister's cackling brought Maka's attention back to the ground. She gripped Soul hard and charged towards the meister as fast as she could. Her arms screamed for rest. Usually she could hold Soul over her head in this form for quite a long time, but right now, it felt as if she'd been fighting for hours on end instead of a couple minutes.

A loud crack of thunder alerted Maka of the electricity descending from the sky directly towards the long haired meister. As she neared the other girl, she noticed that the lightning had indeed struck the girl, but instead of knocking her out, like expected, it seemed to rejuvenate the other girl.

Maka veered to the right in an attempt to throw the meister off, she needed to take a look at her soul. Something was very off about the girl, an eerie, almost tainted air gathered around her, and Maka felt as if she _had_ to get to the bottom of the phenomenon.

Knowing that the other meister would fire something at her like she'd fired at Black*Star. She stayed moving. Darting to the right, the darting back to the left. Soul was heating up in her grip, as time passed by. It grew so uncomfortable, that by the third switch in direction, she had to shift his weight into the other hand.

Gritting her teeth, Maka refocused on the other girl. She had some sort of Soul Protect around her, because as much as she tried to break through the normal protective exterior that guarded the soul from untrained eyes, she just couldn't break it down. It was like she was running into a frail wall—cracking it, but unable to put enough force in to actually do any damage to it.

Abruptly, and seemingly out of no where, the girl shrieked. It wasn't a pained, one, more of a powerful, battle cry. A warning call to anyone in the area that something huge and destructive was about to happen, and they couldn't escape even if they wanted to.

And with the cry shattered the remains of the barrier that shielded the girl's soul from view, a large pulse riveted thought the stagnate air, blowing Maka back a couple steps.

The girl's soul was large, not as big as Professor's Steins or Kidd's but big. It was tinted an unnatural brown color on most of its surface, although there was a little bit of lavender at the very tip of the soul's head. Sad eyes and a solemn frown spread across the soul's exterior as if it was constantly sad and consistently mistreated.

The meister took a sturdy step forward, her body radiating wave after wave of power in every direction.

Maka stumbled on her own feet and came to a skidding stop in order to remain standing. The meister grinned widely at her, not wasting her opening as she let out a bark of laughter and shot a sizzling beam of lightning from her hands.

Maka quickly jumped and spun Soul around in her hands so his handle faced the ground. Once she was no longer over the purple lightning she jammed the end into the ground and propelled herself towards the meister, foot out stretched in front of her in hopes of getting a physical hit in.

Just as Maka was about to collide with the other girl, she jumped into the air, long hair flaunting in Maka's face as if taunting her. _Too slow_ It outwardly mocked as it fluttered after it's owner.

Maka ended up landing a couple feet short of the other girl. Her ankle gave out with the awkward landing and sent her crashing to the ground on her butt. Soul skidded with a loud, obnoxious clinking noise to the opposite direction, where Tsubaki stood next to the still unconscious Black*Star.

"WHAT THE HELL MAKA!" Soul hollered from his spot on the ground, a worried edge to his voice that wasn't normally there.

Maka watched in fear as the meister aimed directly at her. She didn't register Soul's words. She didn't even take in her whereabouts. It was just her and the crazy meister out for blood, aiming her arms—alight with rippling lightning—right in her direction.

She had to do something, and that something had to happen quickly.

"What's wrong?" The meister laughed, the sadistic smile reaching her ears. "Trouble in paradise?" Even if she whispered the last part under her breath, it rang clear in Maka's ears, the girls mocking tone repeating over and over again like a broken record.

"I mean what's wrong with you!" Soul continued on, his reflection flashing in the light of the blade. Red eyes darted from one girl to the other, until focusing on the one on the ground. "GET UP!"

The meister shot at Maka, quick as a striking snake. She flicked her wrist, giving Maka the equivalent of a couple seconds to respond.

Rolling to the side, Maka gasped as the bolt drilled into her shoulder. Fierce pain instantly nuzzled into her muscles, and her spine straightened instantly, making her body arch up as a wounded wail emitted into the cloudy, rainy sky.

She crashed back onto the broken road, breathing heavily. Lifting her head up as much as she could, she saw the meister trudging forward, a serious air to her steps as she grew nearer.

With a loud groan, Maka sat up, her hand instantly going to the gaping wound in her right shoulder. If it was any bigger, her hand would have disappeared inside it.

The meister was a couple steps away from her when her senses kicked into to overdrive. The urge to live, to fight for what she believed in took over the pain of the wound sporting over her shoulder momentarily. She scrambled backwards towards Soul, the ragged rocks not even fazing her anymore. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. Her shoulder throbbed; her whole arm tingled from the left over electricity that coursed through her system.

"You should have seen that coming Maka!" Soul's voice was more vexed than before. When Soul got worried, he got angry. It was just how he dealt with it, and Maka learnt to deal with the derogatory words.

Another tendril of lightning was shot at her; bring her back to the now and happening. What was wrong with her today? She didn't usually muse when she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was like she was delirious.

She blamed it on the lack of sleep.

Narrowly dodging it, she flattening herself to the ground and held her breath in anticipation at it traveled over her beaten up form, just barely moving above her. She swore that that shot had been close enough to burn off her eye brows.

She wobbled her way to her feet, one arm nursing her shoulder as she leant her weight onto on the foot that wasn't throbbing.

With her horrible luck, she probably broke her ankle.

The other meister smiled and ran straight for her at a break neck speed. Maka staggered backwards a couple steps and braced herself for the painful stab that was sure to come once the other girl caught up to her. Then, her heel came in contact with something hard, ungluing her eyes from the meister's quickly approaching form she saw a rather large piece of asphalt.

In a last ditch effort to throw the meister off she picked it up and hurled it at her as hard as she could. She gritted her teeth against that horrible pain that ripped through her shoulder.

Of course the long haired girl catches it and throws it aside without even pausing.

Suddenly, a hand gripped hers, making her gasp in shock. Her head snapped to Soul's alarmed gaze, which was trained on the meister, who was closing in on the two at a fast pace.

Wordlessly Soul transformed. Maka couldn't even wait for him to stop glowing before she had to block the onslaught of attacks. She sliced in front of her, her shoulder throbbing increasing at the harsh movement.

The meister side stepped it, and before Maka could parry her next attack she aimed her fading purple arms at Maka's side.

"MAKA! WATCH OUT!" Soul and Tsubaki chorused in distress, seeing the same opening the other girl had.

Panicking, Maka drove her uninjured arm into the other girl's chest, it was done with an awkward twist, but uprooted the meister's set feet, causing her to take a couple steadying steps backwards.

"What are you doing out there?" Soul hissed. "A two year old can do better than this!"

"What in the hell did you eat today!" Maka yelled, frustrated tears threatening to overspill.

Bewildered, Soul's reflection appeared in the blade once more, eyeing her warily. "Now is not the time to talk about food. Have you lost your MIND?"

"You're _heavy_, and it's hard to—"

Maka was cut off as the other girl kicked her forearm, sending Soul flying to the side and landing hard on the ground.

"IT'S LIKE YOU'RE NOT EVEN TRYING!"

Maka froze, her eyes growing wide. Her whole body locked up at his words. _Not trying, that's ridiculous! For someone who claims to know me so well he can be awfully stupid._

She turned to face the other meister, only to find empty space and more smoke. She snapped her head from side to side, trying to follow the sound of her laughter. She was moving too quickly, it sounded like she was everywhere, yet nowhere at once.

"Let's play hide and seek!" Maka heard the other girl giggle to her left, "I'm IT!" She laughed from directly behind her.

Maka didn't have enough time to react. The meister had come up behind her and pushed her forward by the small of her back. She staggered forward, and just managed to stay on her feet and turn to face the crazy meister.

A piercing scream filled the tense air, and it took her a couple seconds to realize it was her own voice that sounded so shrill. A tearing pain ripped through her stomach and sent tendrils of electricity throughout her system. Shaking uncountable, she collapsed onto the ground face down. Blood spilt onto the pavement, dripping loudly.

It was the only sound she could hear, the sound of her own blood dripping to the ground. She couldn't hear the meister's laughing, Soul's scolding or Tsubaki's shrieks. She didn't even realize the meister was closing in on her until she saw the toes of the person's shoes.

Maka stirred and placed her hands on either side of her shoulders and pushed her self into a kneeling position. Her head spun, the long haired girl's figure doubling and fading in and out. Her hand crept down to her stomach and cupped her wound. The warm, sticky feeling of blood caked her fingers, and soon, her hand had been covered in blood. The wound was too big to put pressure on herself, it would engulf her whole hand.

Wincing in pain, she forced her head up to meet the meister's eyes for the first time.

She would have been pretty if it wasn't for the mad smile taking up the greater portion of her face and the wild look in her bright green eyes. Her long red curls were mused and singed and her clothes ripped. Although, there was no blood on her what so ever, not even a single cut marred her pale skin.

She looked at her with a calculating gaze and placed a hand on her head, clenching it around the top of her skull. "I've been looking for you." She grunted in a tense voice, the smile still plastered to her face.

Maka paused in her movements. She'd been trying to stand up, but it proved futile. "hmm?" She bit out.

"You have to go now!" The girl's green eyes started to glow purple, and soon, the clouds, once again, started to swirl around each other. The wind picked up, blowing her hair in all different directions and ruffling her clothes.

The meister was no longer laughing, and had a serious expression on compared to the playful, sadistic one she was wearing for the majority of the fight. Her eyes were closed in concentration, her arms stretched to the sky. _"__Ut orbis terrarum of preteritus , addo is puella , tribuo deus suus votum of duos res validus quod volatilis."_ She spoke in a small voice, almost humble.

Maka lurched for Soul, ignoring the ripping feeling filling up her stomach, one hand wrapped around the handle of her scythe. She pulled him closer to her and gripped him with her other hand. Everything seemed muted, like no one was yelling at her to run. Like _Soul_ wasn't pleading with her to stop and get away.

Her hand started to burn, and soon, smoke started to travel into the air from where her hands met the metal of his shaft. Wincing she brought him to her chest and just managed to stand up on wavering feet. She reeled forward, her hands screaming with the urge to let go of Soul. He was burning her, and weighing her down. He was so much heavier than she remembered.

She pulled her arms over her head, nearly falling backwards with his weight. The movement aggravated her stomach and she muffled the agonized scream that wanted to show the world how much pain she was in.

Just as she was about to swing the blade at the meister with the glowing eyes, all the sound came rushing back to her. It was like an explosion in her ears. All her pain went from a thought in the back of her mind to reality, her hands let Soul slip out of her grasp and her legs gave out from under her. She fell onto her back, her eyes locking on the huge bolt of purple lightning that was heading straight for her.

She's never felt this frail before as her vision faded into a narrow line. She couldn't see anything on either side of her, so, she was forced to watch the purple lightning come closer to her. Her breaths were shallow and her body shook with wary tension. She wanted to get up, or roll to the side, but, she found she didn't have the will, nor drive, to move.

She'd pushed herself to a new limit.

Her eyes drifted closed as she accepted her fate. She couldn't move, her muscles were way too fried. She let herself fall into a black dreamless rest, the last thing she heard was Soul's heartbreaking screams, as he tried to get her to move out of the way.

Forcing one eye open she had enough time to gasp just as the bolt collided with her prone body. A scorching pain seeming ripped her body into two before she didn't feel anything, didn't see anything at all.

Her world went completely blank as she fell into the nothing that was laid out before here.

**Is she dead? Well, I don't know. What do you think? **


	5. Do You Feel?

**Un-Beta-ed**

**I'll have it updated soon, until then I'm sorry for any typo's/grammar issues.**

**Last song was The Poison by Bullet For My Valentine. Its a fighting song, and very fast past, which was what I was going for in the last chapter. The lyrics corespond with what I think Maka would be feeling.**

**Example:**

_Holding on to you_  
_ To keep from falling_  
_ Your eyes are closing now_  
_ Another chapter's ending_

_ Hard times we always saw_  
_ There's nothing left of you no more_  
_ Fear has no place, no place_  
_ Cover her face_

* * *

**Do You Feel?**

A dull ache thrived through her body, waking her from her nightmare ridden sleep. She felt cold sweat slip down her temple and into her greasy hair. . One eye cracked open, and welcomed the sight of white. After being stuck inside so much black for such a long time, the change in color was relieving at the least. As her vision blurred in and out of focus, the white ebbed away, revealing pulsing, hazy figures surrounding her.

"Maka!" A girly cry sent shivers up her spine. Everything hurt, and it felt as if every bone in her body had been crushed into jello, rendering her immobile, and making her breath shallow. Her eyes finally adjusted to the bright lighting, and she was happy to see the eased smiles on her beloved friend's faces'.

"Tsubaki?" She rasped back, wincing at her own voice. She needed water, and needed it now.

Suddenly there was a man dressed in a white lab coat, scares littering his facial features in clothing, sitting next to her. The sound of his mobile chair rang like earthquakes to her thrumming head. "Maka, How old are you?" He asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

She closed her eyes in concentration; trying to bring a number to her lips she furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance. She couldn't come up with a single digit. "I-I don't remember." If she could tense her limbs, they would be crossed in an irritated manner.

Her vision became obscured again and suddenly the beeping that had been present in the background since she woke up began to grind on her already pounding head. Soon, all she could focus on was the obnoxious sound.

"She's seizing up!" Professor Stein wailed, the sound of his chair clattering backwards in his rush to stand seemed like a distant tick of a clock compared to the beeping that was slowing to a lazier pace.

"Maka, stay with me! You can't do this!" Her weapon's voice pleaded with her, his larger hand grasping hers in a last ditch effort to ground her soul.

But it was too late, and everyone knew it. She even knew it. It was her time and she was going to welcome it with open arms—

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Haha, just kidding. The actual story starts below. I just couldn't resist freakin' you guys out.

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Maka struggled to open her eyes, but found them glued shut by a sticky substance that sometimes gathers on eyelids when someone had been sleeping for a long time. She also found that she couldn't move her arms to wipe it away, nor could she open her mouth to ask for help. She was stuck, in the most literal sense of the word.

It was almost like her body was dysfunctional, but her mind and soul were working fine and completely intact. In fact, this is the clearest she's been able to think in a while. With no noise disturbing her, no bodily functions to attend to and no one to please beside herself—she was at ease.

But, the only thing bothersome about the situation was why? How did she end up like this and why couldn't she leave this…standstill? Was she even alive? What happened before she plunged into this room of nothing?

With a flash a memory surfaced. An argument between her and a white haired boy, and if she remembered correctly, his name was _Soul_. Her partner. It was coming back to her, flooding into her eyes like a waterfall in reverse. Him screaming at her about trust, her crying, and him leaving with only pajamas on. It was all there, every detail. But the weird part was that she was watching herself—no, watching her live her life from a different point of view.

But who was Soul? Was he her brother? Friend? Or maybe he was a lover, seeing as he was lecturing her about trust a couple memories back. It would make senses. He was everywhere too; He seemed to live with her, go to school with her and hang out with her at every waking moment. He never left her side.

There were others with her too. But faces refused to spur names from out beneath a seemingly black blanket that covered the majority of her memories. It was almost as if she was getting a migraine and her vision carried dark splotches and ruining the normally crystal clear view she was used to.

The waterfall slowed, the scene playing out in front of her eyes stretched out and distorted in and out of focus. She was to be changing her clothes, intent on hunting down her stubborn partner before he caught a cold from the down pour that didn't seem to be letting up. Loud clashes of thunder shook the apartment and lightning flickered outside.

Almost like it was timed, her bed room door swung open as the thunder clapped outside her window. Before the intruder fully opened the door the scene became faint and started to skip like an old film that had been played one too many times, until, her sight returned to the present time.

She took a shuddering deep breath and wiped the sweat that had beaded up on the top of her brow away from her eyes. She could help but shiver when the cold darkness wrapped around her body like a cocoon. The icy feeling forced goosebumps to erupt onto her creamy skin. Frantically, she moved her head from side to side, the black substance curling around her neck and onto her chin. A scream bubbled up her throat, but feel a couple seconds short of release as the blackness covered her mouth and pulled her under the surface with a silent splash.

An overbearing feeling of fear closed her throat up, her arms pushed their way free from underneath the heavy, dead weight of the cocoon and with the added freedom, she ripped her way out of it.

Frenetically, she swam forward, her limbs no longer feeling like lead. Her hands and felt cut through the blackness like water. Her strokes were easy and fluent, but swift and speedy at the same time. She didn't take the time to look back, because she knew what had dragged her under was following her, and in fact was probably high on her tail by now.

A faint glow—barely noticeable— to the side caught her attention, and she instantly turned towards it. It could very well be her way out, her savior from the doom that was a breath span away. She refused to go under, for Shinigami's sake, she was not going to meet her maker her. She had to find her friends, her family, and _Soul. _She needed to remember, and it seemed that the only way to obtain what was rightfully hers was this way.

The light grew more pronounce with every kick she made. But in the same breath, the darkness behind her was gaining. She could feel its cold tendrils twisting around her ankles, making them cramp and spasm as it worked its way up to the back of her shin. The light was finger length away, just a little further and she could grasp it.

Narrowing her eyes, she starred straight into the center of it. A figure floated limp there, long hair floating around its naked form. Maka couldn't make out any features, but, she could tell by the narrow shoulders and dipping hips, it was a female body.

The darkness recycled her neck and was quickly moving towards her face when her reaching fingers grasped the light like another hands. She was sucked into it like a vacuum and the blackness was peeled off effortlessly and thrown back into the watery darkness that was awaiting its return. She spun into the embrace of the light, her eyes closing without her consent. All her senses were alive and sparking with something she couldn't really grasp.

The domineering feeling crushed her, and dug under her skin. Her whole body felt weightless and untouchable. Warmth spread over her frozen skin and cracked the shell of darkness that had attached itself there without her noticing. Her arms flung out as she spiraled deeper into the light, colors flashing in front of her closed eyes.

The feeling made her heart plummet to her stomach like she was just falling over the first drop in the tallest, fastest roller coaster known to all of man kind. FI she wasn't in such a state of shock, and hurtling towards something she knew so little about, she would have thrown her arms in the air in exhilaration.

That is until she reached a the end of the tunnel and was thrusted into a place where the noise was so loud it made her grit her teeth and hold her ears in pain. Her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out. Blood dribbled from her nose and pooled on her upper lip as her body squirmed in directions she didn't even know she could move.

Then, just as abruptly as she stopped, the noise faltered and faded away, the light embracing her with its warmth once again.

Maybe she should have used more caution in approaching the mysterious light, after all, her mother had always said that nothing is ever what it seems.

_She fell into a dark room, the flooring hard under her body that was splayed across the cold tiles. Her limbs were spread in every direction, her eyes focused on the ceiling again, the dull light coming from a nearby window lighting the room just enough for her to make out some…troublesome facts._

_For one, there was no door, and the only real opening was a window that didn't look big enough to even fit her head through. So was trapped, once again. Al least she wasn't getting sucked into dark blobs anymore. Instead she was trapped in a place with no doors, no furniture, and no color._

_Her eyes trailed down her body. Her normally colorful clothing was a dull gray. Her was skin the same dreary color as well. Everything matched, from the size of the tiles on the floor to the length of the walls caging her in. _

_The only oddity was the window, which didn't have a sibling to match it._

_Slowly, she sat up, her mouth draw and throat raw. She could taste the blood that had dried on her lip, its irony texture bitter on her tongue. Her body ached, like she'd run a marathon before she landed here. Her head throbbed annoyingly, but, with all the strength she had left, she climbed onto her knees and clumsily crawled towards the closest wall. Planting one hand firmly on the gray barrier, she pushed herself to a standing position and leant her body weight onto the wall._

_Breathing heavily, she walked along the wall, her body unable to push away from its reassuring structure to stand on its own successfully. When she finally reached the window she grabbed it quickly before she tumbled over again. Pulling herself up to its opening she peeked outside to see a colored world._

_The only sound on the deserted, broken street was the fierce wind roaring and pushing stray garbage in its wake. The pitter-patter of rain cleaned the jagged pieces of asphalt that stuck up at odd angles. Random puddles of blood stained the area a gruesome red. The brick walls of building were crumbling right before her eyes, and with a jolt, she realized that she was looking at Death City. _

_Eyes wide and mouth open in awe she stretched her neck as far as the window would permit her and looked further down the street. She wasn't surprised to see more destruction, but was shocked to see a group of teenagers huddled in a small circle. Two stood, one a boy with unruly white hair the other a much taller girl with dark hair pulled into a topknot centered at the crown of her head. _

_The leant on each other for support as they both looked down at the small group huddled together on the ground. Another boy with electric blue hair lay unconscious by a dented trashcan a couple feet away from the other two, who lay almost directly next to each other. A girl with red hair covered the other person and hiding them from Maka's curious eyes._

_Like someone pressed play after a video was paused, everything jumped to life. The Whiter haired boy dropped to his knees and roughly pushed the red haired girl out of the way, not seeming to care about her well being in the least. He pulled a fragile looking body into his arm and buried his head in sandy colored hair. Mumbles were heard, his gruff voice strangely familiar to Maka._

_The dark haired girl limbed over to the blue haired boy, she stopped at his feet and leaned on the wall next to him. She dragged him to his feet, avoiding the jagged edged trash can. His head bobbed back and forth with her movements before it stilled, draped over her slim shoulder. "Soul." Her voice was small and sheepish, yet, also strangely familiar to Maka, "What are we going to do now?" She whispered just loud enough for her to hear._

"_I don't know." The White haired boy turned to face the dark haired girl. Maka took in red eyes, puffy and swelling. He looked tired, and his body quivered slightly. His clothes were completely soaked through, and even stained with blood at some parts. "One of us should find help or something. We can't leave Ms. Crazy alone."_

_The other girl nodded in understanding. "I'll go to the academy." She said after propping the boy on the trashcan. He had a star, shaded in with black, tattooed on the shoulder facing Maka. _

"_Sounds like a plan; I'll stay here and watch over everyone." The Albino boy said tensely. He cradled the sandy haired girl to his chest and scooted back into a wall. He propped his head up and looked to the sky, the rain hitting him directly in the face. He didn't seem to care._

_Maka stared at the boy intensely, her eyes narrowed. There was something naggingly familiar about all of this, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. The way the sky clouded, the red haired meister, and the compassion the girl and boy showed for each other and their friends seemed so surreal. Could she be dreaming? _

"_Maka…." The Albino boy grunted out the name like it was a swear. _

_Maka stiffened and narrowed her eyes in attention. Did she just hair what she thought she heard?_

"_What happened out there?" He continued on, his wet bangs shielding his eyes from her view. "Why couldn't I save you?"_

_Movement alerted both Maka and Albino boy that someone was waking up, and both their eyes snapped to where the blue haired boy was propped up on the trashcan. He shifted slightly, cracking one eye open, he hissed when his leg scrapped against a broken part of the trashcan. He shifted his leg away from it, and threw himself off balance. Teetering on the edge of the can his eyes shot wide open as he flipped off the can and landed on the ground with a large thud and echoing splash._

_Both Albino boy and Maka watched with interest as the tattooed boy's frame stilled. Only his feet were visible from where Maka was trapped, and she could just catch them twitching every once in a while. _

"_Ow." He groaned after a brief silence._

_Albino boy rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the girl in his arms. "Well, we know you're alive." He said sarcastically._

"_Piss off, Soul," He said angrily. His voice muffled by the ground, "I, The GREAT! Black*Star, was just raped by some wacko meister. I don't need your input on how I'm doing."_

_Maka will never know if it was Black*Stars bright words, or his mentioning of names. But it triggered whatever was stuck in her head and more memories resurfaced. People she'd completely forgot about now had names and a place in her life. But, as quickly as it came, the realization ended, and so everything else. She was swiftly engulfed by darkness again. Her stomach filled with butterflies as she fell into nothing. _

_The last thing she remembers before she backed out was reaching her hands out to the light she was falling farther and farther away from. "Soul!" She shouted, her voice returning to her a moment too late._

_Then there was darkness. What's new, right?_

_

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_

**Well, that was fun. Not. **

**This chapter was hell to write. I didn't know what I wanted to happen in it, and well, this is the best I could do. I'm sorry it kind of sucks and doesn't really contribute anything to the plot. But it was necessary.**

**Oh, and the little joke above—you know where Maka dies and what not—that was going to actually be part of the fic, but I decided against it. It was too, cliché for my taste.**

**I would really appreciate it if you give me feedback on this chapter more than the previous ones, I need to know if you guys are confused about what happened, and I would like to hear your thoughts on the events. **

**And don't worry their will be SoMa! Just be patient. **


	6. The Natives

**Chapter 6- The Natives**

Rays of sunlight touched Maka's face, her nose wrinkled and her eyelids drooped further down her eyes to keep the invading light away. The sound of birds hammered in her ears and echoed to her head, which was already pounding with pain. Waves—like she was near an ocean—touched her feet, and when she shifted them away from the tickling sensation, the sand underneath her shifted into her loose clothing.

Her head turned to the side and a yawn forced her mouth open. She sputtered when she tried to swallow, finding her throat extremely dry and filled with sand. She rolled onto her stomach and stretched her limbs out.

Slowly, her green eyes slid open, the sun now directly on the back of her head, they adjusted with much more ease than her first attempt. She gazed down either side of the beach, and found it endless. In front of her there was a dense forest with tall trees that rivaled the height of the buildings in Death City. The forest was bright with life, birds flutter around the trees in hysteria, their calls barely audible from where Maka laid in the sand.

She pushed herself into a sitting position and cupped her hand over her eyes as she swiveled around to look at the ocean behind it. It was vast, just like the corresponding beach. The sun was just seeing over the gently rolling waves. Seaweed littered the coming in waves.

Maka jumped to her feet and backpedaled away from a rather large wave, it crashed at her feet with a roar, getting her bare legs wet. The tips of her skirt, already torn and dirtied, were now wet and uncomfortable as well.

Sighing in aggravation and confusion, she started towards the forest. If anyone there was going to be any intelligible life around here, she figured it would be hidden away in the woods, not in the steaming sand.

She found her body to be sore, and clothes ragged and destroyed. She couldn't quite remember how she got here, or why she was so disheveled but she did know one thing.

She was no longer in Death City.

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A thin branch dragged across her face roughly. Grimacing, she pushed it away irritably, only for it to smack her again. Swearing to herself she pushed through the thick brush, sweat beaded up on her forehead, and when she wiped it away with the back of her wrist, she saw blood there as well. "Damn it." She hissed through clenched teeth.

The sun had almost disappeared, but the humidity was still extremely trying on her tired body. The forest was harder to get through than she initially thought, branches grabbed at her clothes and skin, ripping away at her like claws. It was practically dark in the forest now, so she couldn't fend the nuisances off, and instead decided on trudging her way through the grown-in woodland without regard for her wellbeing.

Her steps were light, and her breaths labored. Her ears aware of her surroundings and responding to every sound she heard. Weaving through a particularly thorny bush, she paused, her whole body going ridged in alertness. Squinting, her eyes strained to see in the darkness in front of her. Her body jerked backwards in shock when she heard another series of louder foot falls to her left.

She ducked into the thorn bush, ignoring the pain that shot up her arms and legs. Through a gap in the bush she noticed two small flames moving through the foliage in sync with the foot falls. They moved much more gracefully though the thick shrub layer of the forest than she had.

"_Ego sententia Audivi quispiam super hic,"_ A male voice echoed in a language she didn't understand. The footfalls came closer to her crouched form, and she ducked into the bush further, letting it shield her from the fire light a couple meters away from her, _"Insisto mihi."_

"Stop that, why do you insist on using that tongue anyway?" The other voice was much gruffer than the other and sounded more like a growl than a question.

Eyes wide, Maka's hands fisted at her side. The footsteps were a couple feet away from her now, and if they took another step they would surely step on the bush she was hiding in.

Much to her relief the one who was talking in a different language paused. She watched as his bare feet—illuminated by the dim fire light he carried—swiveled to face the other guy walking slowly behind.

"I do it so oafs like you don't forget how to speak the language of the gods." He snapped angrily, the fire becoming brighter. "Now are we going to search for whatever _your_ partner sent us out to investigate or are we going to argue?"

The other guy came to a stop next to the angry one. Maka inhaled quietly and held her breath, hoping that the two bickering boys wouldn't hear her labored breaths.

"_Operor vos nidor ut?"_ The man ignored the others question and continued in the other tongue. Despite his bored tone, his words were spoken with enthusiasm.

The boy who seemed to be leading the 'investigation' paused, his breath hitching a bit before he answered. _"Etiam , Is nidor amo Somes nidor. Suus vere propinquus quoque."_

Before she could react the bush was parted by callused hands and the full shine of the fire blinded her. Both men gasped in unison. She crawled backwards on her hands in feet in panic. When her back hit the trunk of a tree she used it to get herself on two legs. Before the men could react, she was running in the opposite direction as fast as her feet would take her. Her arms were extended her front of her, mapping out her steps a second before she took them.

"_Exspecto!" _ The man with the smooth voice shouted after her. The sound of crunching leaves following her every step. Her veins pulsed with adrenaline; her hands coming in contact with a large tree seconds before she ran into it face first. _"Haud postulo ut run , nos won't vulnero vos!"_

She scaled along the wide trunk of the tree hurriedly, and when she found the end, she quickly ducked behind it and raced off to her right. Looking over her shoulder she blanched at how close they were to her. One more slip up like the tree would be too costly; she had to run fluidly and uninterrupted to successfully ditch them.

So, she changed direction once more, ducking into a vast amount of tall undergrowth she veered in the direction she thought to be towards the beach. If she could just make it there, she could run without worries of brush and thorns.

If only she had picked a different time to turn though.

She struggled, the vines of the shrub wrapping around her ankles and tripping her up. She thrashed around, ripping at the vines with pointed fingers in frustration. Finally, she got her foot free and dove to the side just as the two men barreled into the thicket after her. She crawled in the opposite direction hastily.

Lucky for her, the men's fire had gone out. So she had a little more of an advantage. Now if only she could avoid making so much noise, she would be golden. She stopped dead in her tracks when a vine looped around her neck, and gagged when tightened around her bare skin, choking her air supply off abruptly. She ripped the offending vine away and threw in to the side angry.

In that moment of hesitation, a warm hand clutched around her throbbing ankle roughly. She could feel the man's fingers burning into her skin with the tightness of his hold on her. Panicking, she flipped onto her back, groaning at the pop sound her ankle made at the awkward position. She kicked out with her free foot and connected with something hard.

The man's grip loosened enough for her to pull her foot away. Without wavering for a second she resumed her escape route. She rolled to the side just in case on of the men made another grab for her and righted herself to her hands and knees again. She no longer had a sense of direction and was reduced to crawling around aimlessly.

Her knees scrapped on the rocky ground, and soon, the vines were becoming less dense. She moved to a standing position and started to run again. Her breathing was heavy and she couldn't hear much over it. Slowing her steps she paused momentarily, and was greeted by silence.

Glorious silence. No foot steps behind her, no heavy breathing besides her own. She was alone. But, for safety measures she snuck forward, her hands level at her sides searching for something large. When she came in contact with another tree, not nearly as large as the other, she sighed in respite and circled around it. She sat down, leaning her back on the base and closed her tired eyes. Her hear beat was way to rapid to be even remotely healthy and the about of sweet on her brow was obscene. Her hand traveled across the hard ground in search for some type of weapon, her hand came in contract with a rock, smooth and hard. She picked it up, the weight reassuring in her hand and set it in her lap. Next to her she felt a bush, less thorny than the first one and more, leafier than the other. She scooted towards the bush slowly for more cover.

A rustling of nearby bushes made her eyes shoot open, her head snapped to sound a couple seconds too late. A large blade zipped by and stuck into the wood of the tree a couple centimeters away from her head. Muffling a surprised cry with her arm she spun onto her feet and staggered away from the blade. Before she could turn to run her back hit hard flesh, hot hands clamped down on her shoulders.

Screaming, her hand flew over her head, the rock clenched tightly in her fist. She jammed it into the offending man's face and pulled away from him. Growling when his grip on her shoulders only tightened she smashed the rock into his fingers, digging in to them mercilessly. He shrieked and pulled his fingers away. _"__Proditus snake!" _He snarled in her ear harshly.

She jerked away from him and wobbled backwards, just barely squeezed by the tree she'd been resting against a couple mere seconds ago. Before she could really break out running, another body seemingly came out of nowhere. She spun out to a stop and scarcely dodged the man's hand. She elbowed him in the back and pushed him into the tree with the momentum her body had worked up.

Thinking quickly she sprinted off towards the bush she'd been inspecting and dove into it, crawling through its expanse. Blindly searching for another rock to jam into someone's face, she swallowed another scream as the shadow of a hand stuck into the bush directly in front of her face, missing the tip of her bangs by inches. She bent low to the ground and crawled backwards, out of the bush.

She stood and tip toed away. She didn't even make it five steps before a branch snapped underneath her aching foot. Her ankle muscles contracted forcing a hiss of pain to slip from between clenched teeth, just as a cloth covered hand curved around her mouth and nose, an odd smell dominating her senses. Unexpectedly, there was a burst of heat and light at her left shoulder. The man's arm grazed her neck as he extended it in front of her.

Her vision blurred in and out of focus, but before she completely blacked out from the fumes she was being forced to inhale she noticed two extremely strange things about this situation and the two men that had successfully captured her.

One, the man who was holding the soaked cloth to her face hand was on fire, and he wasn't freaking out or flailing it in pain.

And two, the other man who was standing by the bush she'd just crawled out from underneath had piercing red eyes that glittered brightly in the dim light the fire provided.

Then, she could no longer stay awake, and she was wisped away to dream world.

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Her body bounced, like she was riding on some sort of animal's back. Her head hurt like she'd just drank a whole keg of alcohol and her limbs felt like she just ran a 5k marathon around Death City. Something was seriously wrong. Slowly, feeling started to spread through her limp limbs and along came awareness not soon after. Her cheek was pressed up against warm, bare flesh, and there was something holding her legs onto whatever she was riding.

"_Quis es nos iens efficio per suus?" _ The thing carrying her spoke softly, his voice low as if he were avoiding waking her.

"_Addo suus tergum ut Rector, obviously." _Another man answered in gibberish.

All her prior memories hit her like a brick. She remembered running through the woods in attempt to elude crazy forest people. A man with a flaming hand holding some sort of cloth, soaked in Shinigami knows what. Another man standing a couple feet away with stunning red eyes.

_Soul's eyes._ A little voice in her head whispered, and with that, her eyes snapped open. Her head lifted off what happened to be a man's shoulder blade. The first thing her eyes focused on was the little bit of brightness filtering through the dense canopy and barely lighting their path in a soft glow.

The second thing was the mass of white hair tied in a low pony tail at the nape of her capturer's neck and traveled the length of his back. Absently, she wondered if it hurt to have her leaning on the smooth locks.

"Crap! She's awake!" The man said urgently, his arms tightening around her legs to keep her from escaping.

As much as she wanted to struggle, she found her limbs to be jelly and her head crashed back down onto his shoulder.

"_Operor non fatigo , sero ego emanio in tela est a sedative. She'll exsisto asleep iterum in haud vicis." _ The other man spoke, his tone was arrogant, as if he were bragging about something.

"If you say so." The man carrying her seemed a little hesitant to believe her, but, nonetheless, he loosened his hold on her. She felt sleep ebbing away at her vision again, and with a yawn she hit at the man's shoulder, whimpering to herself in desperation.

"Let me go." She whispered, almost to herself. The man sighed, and lowered his head.

"I don't think that would be a great idea." He turned his head to her and appraised her tired features with hooded eyes. Before hers slid shut, she saw a flash of familiar sharp teeth and a large bruise encircling his bright eyes in the shape of a bare foot. Then her eyes floated shut again, and a spiral of gray clouds sucked her into another dreamless sleep.

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I do not own Soul Eater.

I'm sorry I haven't updated in such a long time, but I had the PSAT test to study for and I've been sick off and on throughout the two weeks I've missed. I can't write for crap when I'm sick.

Oh, and yes, my updates will be like this more often. I'm sorry, but school comes first, so if I have a lot of homework, then I'm not writing this story until I finish it. But, you can always count on the updates being on a MONDAY!

A shout out to a certain freshman in my drawing class:

Spirit: Stein, he... when I was asleep, he... performed his sadistic experiments on my body!... For FIVE YEARS! AND I NEVER NOTICED!

Spirit: makamakamakamakamaka!

Ok, I'm done.


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